A primary goal of minimally invasive surgical procedures is to minimize the adverse effects of the procedure on the patient. This reduces post-surgical trauma and pain and minimizes recovery time. Some minimally invasive procedures require the surgeon to create one or more small incisions through which various surgical instruments can be passed. Other minimally invasive procedures forego the need to make even small incisions in the patient, instead relying on surgical instruments such as, for example, flexible endoscopes that can enter the body through a natural bodily orifice.
FIGS. 1 and 2 depict a traditional flexible endoscope 20 which can be utilized by a surgeon to remotely view and manipulate tissue within the body of a patient. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a traditional flexible endoscope 20 generally comprises a control body 22 that connects to an insertion tube 24. The control body 22 remains outside the patient, while the flexible insertion tube 24 is inserted into the interior of the patient via either a naturally occurring or man-made orifice. Depending on the intended function of a specific flexible endoscope, the insertion tube 24 can include, for example, various channels for performing suction, biopsy, irrigation and insufflation. The insertion tube 24 may also include fiber optics or light bundles for conveying light from an external light source to the interior of the patient, as well as conveying images from the interior to an exterior camera. A connector 32 allows the endoscope 20 to connect to one or more various related system components, including, for example, a power supply, a light source, a camera and/or video processor. Endoscope 20 may also include additional control means 30 for controlling one or more functions of the endoscope, such as, for example, a manipulator or other tissue processing means that extends out from the distal tip section 26 of the endoscope 20.
In practice, the insertion tube 24 is inserted into an orifice of the patient and then slowly advanced into the interior of the patient. One or more controls 28 typically located on the body 22 of the endoscope 20 allows for the surgeon to manipulate or bend the distal tip section 26 of the flexible endoscope as he or she advances the insertion tube 24 through the patient. In this manner, the surgeon can steer the tip 26 of the endoscope as it is advanced through the interior of the patient's body.
Thus, as illustrated in the example of FIG. 2, a surgeon can utilize a flexible endoscope 20 to view and manipulate the tissue of a patient's upper gastrointestinal tract by inserting the distal tip section 26 of the endoscope 20 into the mouth 44 of the patient 42. The surgeon then advances the insertion tube 24 down the patient's esophagus 46 until the tip region 26 of the endoscope 20 is in the region of tissue that he or she wishes to examine, i.e., the stomach 48 or duodenum 50.
However, a problem that exists in most applications involving a flexible endoscope is that the area of tissue or target anatomy that the surgeon wishes to examine and manipulate is often an area that is not in the immediate proximity of the natural orifice used to gain access to the interior of the patient's body. As such, the surgeon is often required to navigate the surgical instrument, such as the flexible endoscope, to the target anatomy and operate on portions of the anatomy that are neither directly visible nor readily visible without some degree of difficulty. Furthermore, even though surgical instruments such as flexible endoscopes do allow for a surgeon to remotely view and manipulate tissue, they are limited in their capabilities and difficult to master. For instance, endoscopes typically have limited field of view. In addition, they display anatomical data in two dimensions. As a result, even an experienced surgeon can find it difficult to navigate to a specified area of tissue and localize a specific target region, such as an organ or lesion. Moreover, the level of difficulty involved in navigating to a target tissue increases significantly as the distance between the target tissue and the orifice used to gain entry to the interior of the patient increases.